There was more than meets the eye in the “warm welcome” extended to MLP Leader Alfred Sant, and his entourage, at the Nationalist Party headquarters in the first week of the New Year.

This was not a return gesture, marking the season of goodwill by Dr Gonzi, to reciprocate his welcome at MLP headquarters in March 2004, on the morrow of his appointment as PN leader.

Neither was it an indication of a thaw in the political atmosphere frozen by polarisation.

It was the focal point of a charm offensive launched by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi, as the PN approaches the run-in to the next electoral consultation. The next round of local elections takes place in two months time or so.

Dr Gonzi is busily constructing his electoral platform. He has already entered the fray with a personal manifesto in the form of a “Talking Point” in The Times. He identified his prime ministership with “an innovative and competent Malta” and spoke of “the difference between sterile governance and more sustainable, effective forms of governance”.

He followed that exercise within days with a full-page interview in the same newspaper to claim that, no doubt due to his consummate statecraft, “he ended the year on a high”.

His thrust is to underscore the fact that, as a result of the recent EU budget deal, Malta will be getting a billion euros in the next few years – which is “massive” and which he described as “the highest amount that Malta has ever received from foreign sources that will ever have been invested directly into the economy.”

Euphoria

This euphoria is deflated under questioning. Dr Gonzi acknowledges that “the burning question is: will Malta be able to make effective use of the funds made available to it, due to the time limits and conditions imposed?” It is further deflated by Dr Gonzi’s admission that he would like to see “a quicker way” of allocating tenders and getting on with the business of gestating EU funding.

Dr Gonzi will make no commitment as to whether these EU funds will make it easier for him to introduce changes in the tax structure.

He is not relaxed enough to effect an early Cabinet reshuffle with a view to bringing in new blood, to hand over the Finance Ministry to a pair of safe hands, so that he could concentrate on the job of leading and coordinating government policy.

Dr Gonzi wound up his latest interview with the personal conviction that “the results (achieved) will continue to persuade people that we have the best policies. The opposition has absolutely no policies whatsoever,” he insisted.

Achilles’ heel

This is Dr Gonzi’s Achilles’ heel. Since he became Prime Minister, he has had to face three electoral consultations and he has lost them all. If anything, the prevailing conditions have deteriorated during the past year.

The economy lost more ground. Our staggering national debt has become more staggering. Investment fatigue persisted. Taxation soared. Living costs have been eating persistently into the income of workers, pensioners and others living on social benefits.

Dr Gonzi has no defence other than to ask “what alternatives are the opposition suggesting”.

It is, of course, up to the opposition to come up with the answers, and it is up to the electorate to deliver its sovereign judgment in due course.

At this specific point in time, one thing is quite clear: it is a time for change – a change for the better.

The economy has been sliding down steadily during the last few years. Notwithstanding mounting burdens, imposed first by John Dalli and subsequently by Dr Gonzi in person, to strengthen the sinews of the economy, our performance has lost its tempo, its competitiveness and its earning power.

Change is an imperative

The results are there, and they stand out. They are harmful to the economy, disastrous to thousands of families whose upwardly-mobile direction has been reversed, and painful to more thousands of families who find themselves close to, or below, the poverty line.

That is why change has become an imperative for survival.

Change doesn’t flow from charm – ministerial or otherwise.

It flows from the will to perform in an improved and transparent environment.

Malta needs fresh air, an outward oriented leadership with lots of initiative, with a commitment to recruit the best available talent for the job. It calls for a genuine, new way of doing politics.

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